In 65438 BC+065438 BC+00 BC, in order to manage and supervise all localities more effectively, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established an unprecedented position-Shangshu Province, and appointed the first batch of thirteen ministers to exercise inspection and supervision. From then on, it became a regular system and continued until the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In a vast place like the Western Han Dynasty, it is often beyond the power of the imperial court to manage more than 100 county-level units at the same time. There are more than 100 county-level local governors directly managed and supervised by the imperial court (central government), and it is often impossible to understand their specific situation more effectively. Under the traffic conditions at that time, it was actually beyond the power of the court to supervise and manage so many county-level officials at the same time. For example, sending a military official document from the capital Chang 'an to Dunhuang County (now Dunhuang City, Gansu Province) takes 40 days one way and 80 days round trip at the earliest. However, many counties are farther away from Chang 'an than Dunhuang, and the road conditions are worse and it takes longer.
? Especially for the actual achievements and personal integrity of these county officials, it is even more difficult to carry out effective supervision. However, if we want to add another management level above the county level, we need to increase a lot of personnel and expenses, which is too expensive and will affect the efficiency of centralized system. So Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty divided the whole country into thirteen parts except the seven county-level administrative regions around the capital, namely Yuzhou, Chongzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Yizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Jiaotoe and Shuofang. Each division sent a secretariat to inspect local officials and dignitaries in China, referred to as "Thirteen Division" or "Thirteen Division" for short. Among them, 1 1 is named after the previously circulated state name, which is also called "Thirteen States Secretariat Department" or "Thirteen States". Seven county-level units near the capital are directly managed by the imperial court, which is called "Li Si DuDu Department". Because of the inspectors' convenience, no other secretariat patrols.
The Secretariat has a clear scope of responsibilities, and its general task is to "inspect counties and countries, examine and handle cases, whether it is possible, and deal with unjust imprisonment", that is, to inspect every county-level unit, investigate and understand the administrative governance, put forward suggestions for promotion or dismissal according to the ability of officials, and examine and correct unjust imprisonment. However, the scope of inspection is strictly limited to "six articles", and things that do not belong to "six articles" are not allowed to be inspected.
Article 1: "Strong Zong Hao has the right to dominate the family, bullying the weak by the strong and bullying the weak by the many". That is to check whether the fields and houses occupied by the local rich and wealthy households exceed the standard, and whether they bully the weak by power and the minority by quantity.
Article 2, "Two thousand stones do not obey the imperial edict system, and the public is greater than the private, profiting from the imperial edict, invading fishermen and amassing them as traitors." It is aimed at those officials who have a surname, that is, they enjoy a salary of 2,000 stone every year, and check whether they disobey government decrees, defy the legal system, use official documents and laws for personal gain, misinterpret imperial edicts for profit, infringe on the interests of the people, illegally collect money, and pervert the law.
Article 3: "Two thousand stones don't pity the suspected prison, the wind kills people heavily, and anger punishes them. If you like it, you will reward it, disturb it, strip Li Yuan, suffer from people's diseases, landslides and stone cracks, and swear words are auspicious. " Check whether local officials fail to deal with unjust imprisonment in time, or find excuses to kill people, abuse punishment when they are angry, and reward them arbitrarily when they are happy, whether they exploit the people by harsh and cumbersome means and are hated by the people, or use natural phenomena such as landslides and earthquakes to forge disasters, lie about good news, spread rumors and confuse people.
Article 4, "The choice of two thousand stones is unfair. If you love it, you will hide your virtue and spoil it." Check whether local officials are unfair in recommending sages, appointing and dismissing personnel, and evaluating officials, or whether they are partial to their cronies, promoting these people, blocking the promotion of talented people, or choosing useless people.
Article 5, "The son of 2,000 stones depends on his honor, so please entrust him to the prison". Point the finger at the second generation of officials, and find out whether the children of county-level officials use the power of officials, or use such family background to intercede within the authority or jurisdiction of officials.
Article 6, "Two thousand stones against the public are powerful. Bribery, cut losses, check whether local officials have violated the law to lower standards, attach to please local strongmen, accept bribes from them, and undermine normal systems and decrees.
? It can be seen that the "six articles" are mainly aimed at local officials and their children, and they investigate corruption and bribery, jobbery, violation of law and discipline, and collusion with local strongmen. Moreover, it is strictly stipulated that it is not within the scope of the "six articles" and it is forbidden to patrol, monitor and trace the secretariat. On the one hand, their responsibilities were clarified, on the other hand, they were prevented from using the authority of the emperor to interfere with and influence the normal administrative system and daily administrative affairs.
? The secretariat also has a very clever design in the system-light position and light weight. The administrative level of the secretariat is not high, and the salary is only 600 stones, which is equivalent to the county order of a big county, that is, the "county-level" cadres, but the object of their supervision is 2000 stones, which is equivalent to the "provincial level". Because of their low rank, they have no other power except the special power given to them by the emperor, and they can't interfere with the normal administration of the county chiefs who are much higher than them, but they have the most important power, that is, they can report directly to the emperor, which greatly shocked the "two thousand stones." The secretariat cannot be on an equal footing with the "two thousand stones", nor can it replace the duties of the county magistrate and a captain of the two thousand stones, but it can make the "two thousand stones" tremble with fear.
? As mentioned above, the establishment of a permanent administrative agency at or above the county level will not only increase a lot of manpower and material resources, but also fail to play the role of inspection and supervision. On the contrary, it will increase a level under the centralized system and affect administrative efficiency.
Because of this, the secretariat only drew a scope, requiring each secretariat to visit several counties, without setting up administrative agencies above these counties. The Secretariat has no fixed office and can only be "always on the road". After patrolling this county, we have to go to another county. There is no reason to stay there, it is difficult to form an interest relationship with one of them, and it will not improve its local administrative status because it stays in one place for a long time.
By the Eastern Han Dynasty, the secretariat system had changed. The secretariat has a fixed office, located in a county office or a city. This will inevitably reduce the number and time of inspections by the Secretariat. The Secretariat relies more on the following reports than on its own investigation and handling. In this way, the administrative status of their resident has been greatly improved, and they have actually become the administrative center of this secretariat, surpassing any county. Another major change is that while the secretariat can report directly to the emperor, the system of reporting from the county to the court continues to exist. This is a dual-track system, and the content of the secretariat report is limited to "six articles", which cannot replace the report of the county magistrate. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the two tracks were merged into one track, which stipulated that the county magistrate could only report through the secretariat. Nominally, the secretariat can only forward newspapers, but what, when and how to forward them depends on the secretariat. Because the secretariat monopolized the right to report, the actual status of the county magistrate became a subordinate of the secretariat.
Although the name has not changed, this secretariat is no longer a secretariat, and the inspection and supervision functions are gradually replaced by administrative functions.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, foreign invasion and civil strife were frequent, and it was difficult to deal with it by one county alone. Only by concentrating the manpower and financial resources of several counties can it be effective. The secretariat department just adapted to the needs, so the secretariat became a state animal husbandry-a veritable chief executive at or above the county level. Grazing is a herdsman. As the name implies, he manages people just like a shepherd manages his sheep. The state animal husbandry station has become the upper-level governance place for county and state governance. The county system implemented since Qin Shihuang is a two-level system, and there are two levels of "counties" under the court. At this time, it evolved into a three-level system, with three levels of "state, capital and county" under the imperial court, which later became the normal administrative division system in China.